Bought *RTX5090* for $3200 but received laundry detergent instead?

I came across this news on the subway. It’s honestly kind of outrageous.

A netizen spent $3200 on Amazon, about RMB 22,107, to buy an RTX5090. But when he opened the box, instead of a graphics card, he found a 1 kg bag of Ghadi laundry detergent worth $2, about RMB 13. The contrast is like ordering a fancy feast and having the delivery guy bring you a cucumber. Incredibly frustrating.

What stings even more is that the card’s official MSRP is actually $1999, about RMB 13,811. In other words, he had already paid a premium for it, only to fall into an even more absurd trap.

The buyer himself had been very cautious. He set up a camera before unboxing. The outer Amazon shipping bag looked properly sealed, but the graphics card box inside showed obvious damage. The original factory seal looked like it had been cut open and then covered up with transparent tape. There was even a fake third-party barcode added to the front of the box. It feels like when the seal on your milk tea looks fine, but you know something’s wrong the moment you take the first sip.

On top of that, the package information wasn’t clean either. The label shared by the user showed the seller as “FAB World Point,” but the invoice was issued under the name “MOHD KHALID.” Even more absurd, the iGST rate on the invoice was listed as 0%, while the original report noted that legally sold computer hardware usually requires 18% iGST. Just from these details alone, this was clearly far more than a simple mistake.

Customer service also handled it painfully slowly. The user said he had been bounced around repeatedly over the past few days. At first, they said it would be resolved on March 18 or March 19, then it was pushed back again to March 25. The reason given was that multiple teams needed to conduct a “thorough investigation.” But after the buyer issued an ultimatum and said he would take the case to consumer court, Amazon changed its tune in an email, saying that after a “comprehensive review,” it had confirmed there was no issue with the item shipped, so no refund would be issued.

There’s another point too: this may not be an isolated case. The report mentioned that just a few days earlier, another user had also bought from the same seller and received the exact same 1 kg bag of Ghadi laundry detergent instead of a graphics card. Reading this honestly makes me even more cautious about buying expensive electronics online. Go cheap and you risk getting burned; pay more and you’re not necessarily safe either.

If you’re also thinking about buying a graphics card lately, my advice is simple. First, prioritize products sold directly by the platform, and don’t just look at the low price. Second, always record the entire unboxing process when receiving the package, especially for high-ticket hardware. Third, pay close attention to details like the seller’s name, the invoice header, and the tax rate—many traps are actually spelled out on the paperwork. Fourth, if you see repeated bad reviews for the same store, really don’t gamble on luck.

For casual gamers, I personally might not usually bother with this kind of top-tier hardware. But after seeing enough stories like this, one trend becomes clear: just because a platform is big doesn’t mean every third-party seller on it is trustworthy. When it comes to buying digital products, the shopping experience and after-sales support are a lot like gacha in games—the worst part isn’t that it’s expensive, but that even after spending the money, you still end up frustrated.